Community college graduation rate perhaps double what previously thought, new data show.

My colleague Jon Marcus wrote an interesting piece today explaining why community college graduation rates are actually double what the data usually show. That’s because many students transfer and eventually earn a degree somewhere else. Instead of a dismal 18 percent graduation rate, new data from the National Student Clearinghouse suggests that the community college graduation rate is greater than 33%. (I calculated that by multiplying 60% by 25%, which is the percent of students that transfer to 4-year institutions and eventually graduate, and added that to the original 18% graduation rate).

We don’t call someone a high school drop out if they switched high schools and eventually graduate. Why do we do that for community college transfers?